\t\t\tEdward R. Merrick \t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tOBITUARY\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cA kind heart, a gentle soul, and a life well lived. \u201d<\/p>\n
\nEdward R. Merrick, 89, of Saint Petersburg, Florida, died June 29 at St. Anthony\u2019s hospital in that city.<\/p>\n
\nHe was born in Freeland, Pennsylvania on September 29, 1936 to Helen M. (nee Remak) and Anthony J. Merrick.<\/p>\n
\nHe graduated as valedictorian in 1954 from Mining and Mechanical Institute, now the MMI Preparatory School, in Freeland, and with high honors and special honors in English in 1959 from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa, national honor society.<\/p>\n
\nHe worked as a reporter-photographer for the Hazleton Standard-Speaker from 1959 to 1969, with a two-year hiatus for service in the U.S. Army, and as an editor for 32 years for the Saint Petersburg Times, now the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n
\nHe was a member of Saint Casimirs R.C. Church. Freeland, and of Saint Andrew Lutheran Church, Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n
\nHe loved family time, reading, writing, opera, and mountain hiking in North America and Europe and collected vintage metal toys and World War I Liberty Bond posters.<\/p>\n
\nHe is survived by a niece, Cynthia Lazaro, a nephew, Thomas J. Merrick (wife Julia), a great-niece, Danielle Lazaro, a great-nephew, Steven Lazaro, a granddaughter, Molly J. McAliley; and two great-grandsons. A brother, Thomas A. Merrick, died in 2006, and a sister, Helen Merrick, died in 2025.<\/p>\n
\nHis father owned and operated a store-on-wheels and a grocery store in Freeland.<\/p>\n
\nBurial will be in the family plot in Saint Casimir\u2019s Cemetery, Freeland, by McNulty Funeral Home.<\/p>\n
\nGulf to Bay Cremation, Clearwater, had charge of arrangements.<\/p>\n
\nEdward R. Merrick<\/p>\n
\nJune 29, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edward R. Merrick OBITUARY \u201cA kind heart, a gentle soul, and a life well lived. \u201d Edward R.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-338316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}